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Excerpts

Why MFU? What is it about the show that fuelled your creativity?

Firstly, the setting – and there are two angles. The first is pretty simple (childlike, really): They travel all over the world and see all kinds of cool places and are sophisticated jetsetters – they’re neato. The second is more complex: What they do is fascinating. They’re out to save the world from these larger-than-life bad guys (THRUSH) and also more run of the mill baddies. They’re heroes who occasionally have to do really heinous things and make very difficult choices. UNCLE as an organization provides all the interest of any police organization (adventure, excitement, heroism) without the nationalism that can be so ugly and small-minded.

All of that is fodder for fiction in any circumstance. Then you have Napoleon and Illya themselves – only sketched, so there’s so much wonderful room for speculation, but the sketch is interesting and intelligent and complicated and funny.

Beyond that, what draws me into writing in any fandom is the appeal of the characters/actors. RV and DM imbued their characters with charm and sex appeal. It’s hard to quantify why some shows/books/movies spur me to write and others don’t, but I have a definite penchant for buddy shows. :-)

What is the story you “dare not write” or the picture “you dare not create”?
I’ll tell you what, I started a story set in the south (of the U.S.), and I think it’s potentially a good story (whether it’ll ever be finished …?). Because it was appropriate for the characters and era, I have certain characters using a word that I admit I thought hard about including. It’s right, it’s realistic … and every time I go back to that story I wonder if someone somewhere is going to go right past the fact that it’s right and realistic and go on a rampage. I’m not a fan of political correctness.

How would you respond to a critic who says, “Oh, you write fan fiction. You’re not a real writer.”
That’s a person who is ignorant, and that’s probably what I’d say. I’d present them with a few of the many many examples of fanfiction that are far superior to the bulk of published fiction, if I deigned to continue any sort of contact at all with such a moron.